Was at this show and upon listening to this VERY fine Aud it validates my thought walking out of the Pyramid: this was a pretty damn good performance throughout.

The further I get into this Spring tour, one thing really stands out about it and one word to describe it: UNIQUE It seems like every run, practically every show, they are either closing out a historic venue (Spectrum, Omni...) playing a historic run (4 nights), playing a legendary bust oit, playing a song theyve never played, constantly playing a "first of the tour" , playing a crazy unexpected jam, or in this case playing a town they hadn't played in 25 years.

And so far, since Feb, the playing has been solid. Really, they sound even better than the last year... the drums are more thunderous and in your face (in a good way) than ever and jerry's guitar tones are awesome. And Vince too... it just seems like all the change with the in ear monitors and amps under the stage and the whole "playing to a mix" thing that each band member's been doing for the last few years before this, it seems like all of it has evolved to a point where the SOUND of the band is the best it has been since ...whenever... it's their "new" sound, i guess, just like you notice when going back to years like 77 or 85 or 90... when their sound evolition seems to reach a pinnacle before a major shift (usually brought on by personnel change)
So i found this AUD.
It's great... by the end, i felt like i may as well have been listening to a SBD, its so up-front and clear.
At this point, there's some good things you can count on: like Space being more cool than usual, or Jerry getting lost in Samba soloing over the changes... but Hell in a Bucket is one thing they seem to always kick ass on. The drumming is off the chain on this version!!, typical extra-terrestrial 95 drumming. I actually got chills when i heard the crowd erupt... this crowd is SO on fire tonight in Memphis!!! You can also tell how much it keeps the band on its toes. Awesome dynamic. Honestly, the set is played superbly, but there isn't anything too strange or unusual to report. If you recall, the last Candyman they played got caught in a somewhat controversial whammy pedal breakdown trance that lasted 20 minutes... but this Candyman is a standard 8 or 9. This version features excellent soling from Jerry... the rest of the set follows in similar fashion.... it features our first "Childhood's End" of the tour...and a "Take Me To the River" bustout that maybe had a little more Talking Heads than Al Greene thanks to Vince :-) Another really cool first set I would rank as "must hear" if you're a real head and you want to be truly educated about how the band played and sounded at the end of Jerry's time in the band.
Set II
The highlight of this show is the 15 minute Foolish Heart and the sprawling jam it contains. It's a perfect example of the 'group sound' style of jamming that Jerry has been nudging the band into... its not like he's not playing lead, he's just playing in a way that meshes in with bob and vince, instead of playing over top of them. And before some wise cracker who's lazy and doesn't want to listen throws in, "oh yeah that's just Jerry not listening and not playing good", you're wrong. Listen to the figures and phrases and the notes he plays. He's on top of it and he's playing very well ...it's clear he's choosing to step back and let the band interact and share common ground during the improvisations. Not every jam is like this... but the Foolish Heart and the Eyes feature very cool group jamming where everyone sounds equal and forms a mesh... (my favorite example of this is the famous 3/23/95 scarlet fire and also corrina) check out the Eyes from.this night... it does this too. This version has a really cool outro to drums... nothing crazy, just cool. I swear, i dont think theres any song that fluctuates in tempo as much as Eyes...this one is Fast!! (I like them slow but hey, its the adventure that counts..)
Very cool drums with a crazy arpeggiating effect trigger id never heard them use. At one point, the drums sound like a banjo....Space finds us returning to the "space song" they've been working on aĺl tour. Not sure if they can ever top where they got with it at Charlotte with Hornsby or even the week before at the Spectrum, but it's fun to follow it and see. Eventually, they begin to weave bits of the wheel into space, and Jerry is literally learning his whammy pedal in front of us. This is not the Whammy II pedal that comes out in 96 (i think) where you can actually turn a dial and set the key... jerry is literally just setting it to 4ths ir 5ths or whatever interval and trying to harmonize on the fly with his foot. Ya'll, that is HARD as fugg. So, next time you roll your eyes at him using that "horribly out of tune" pedal, just think of it as in investment that finally pays off in May at Memorial Stadium during the legendary Scarlet Fire.The sequence following drums is unique , Wheel -> Watchtower -> SOTM... then a Sat Nite encore... you can hear the crowd beating on the seats in hopes of a double encore, but no dice. Cant wait for tomorrow's show!


Really solid show , and ive never seen a tour where they play so many different songs and tonight seems like a set up for tomorrow... we'll see
Four stars for playing , four for sound

Although shaky at times, Jerry really comes through instrumentally during foolish heart. Candyman was also very nice for the first time in a long while.